Sexual harassment: everybody’s problem

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60% of our women staff members say they have been sexually harassed in a workplace

Over the years, women have been harassed verbally, physically, and even sexually. Women have faced harassment in the workforce since women got the right to work in the 1900’s. A case study in 2015 by Cosmopolitan magazine revealed that one in three women, ages 18 to 34 have been sexually harassed. Not just women have been harassed in the workplace, but so have men; sexual harassment has no gender or boundaries. Many of those who have been sexually harassed have stayed quiet, they are afraid of losing their jobs or not being taken seriously, both men and women. Ever since Trump became president, women have been coming and saying the atrocities that he acted upon and now with the Weinstein and the Hollywood accusations, both men and women have reported either being sexually assaulted or harassed by many great names in the Hollywood business. Starting from Hollywood actors Ed Westwick to Dustin Hoffman to politicians such George H.W Bush to U.S senator Al Franken.

All the teachers but one wanted to stay anonymous when being interviewed about this topic. Why might that be?

“I definitely have (been sexually harassed) close to everyday by students, not staff,” an anonymous teacher said.

Dean of students Ms. Gomez has a similar story that had a big consequence.

“At a previous job a boy pretended to grab my rear end while I had my back to the students, not noticing that his teacher saw. That student was reprimanded, he got suspended, and we had a meeting with his parents because of the inappropriate behavior,” Gomez said.

When teachers were asked to be interviewed some said no after reading our survey question (Have you ever been sexually harassed in a workplace?). An anonymous teacher said that this might be because the staff might be fearful of being published on the school newspaper.

“I’d take a guess that if it happened at their current workplace they wouldn’t want to bring any attention to it or maybe they don’t want to stir any trouble,”Dean of Students Ms. Gomez said.

A teacher who will remain anonymous has also faced sexual harassment in the workplace.

“It’s a very touchy subject and I think that many people do it with the intention of joking around; a lot of people take that reaction as “A-ha, maybe you are joking around” but deep down inside it does bother you” a teacher said.

When the teacher was asked if she tried to tell anyone about the situation, this is what she had to say.

“I think that if (anyone who has been sexually harassed) told their managers… this is still a man’s world in other words.” she said.